The Minor Prophets, Messengers for Today: Haggai

The Minor Prophets, Messengers for Today:  Haggai
By Rev. Lonnie C. Crowe

The Lord spoke to the prophet Haggai after the Jews had returned from their exile in Persia.  The people of God had been diligent in rebuilding their own homes and lives, but had neglected the Temple and the worship of the Lord.

Haggai 1:3-8 (NKJV)
“3  Then the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet, saying,
4  "Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, and this temple to lie in ruins?"
5  Now therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: "Consider your ways!
6  "You have sown much, and bring in little; You eat, but do not have enough; You drink, but you are not filled with drink; You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; And he who earns wages, Earns wages to put into a bag with holes."
7  Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Consider your ways!
8  Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified," says the LORD.”

As He declared in the time of Haggai, the Lord is speaking to the church today. We have not only built beautiful homes for ourselves, but we have also often constructed elaborate edifices designated as places for worship.  Yet, we have even more often neglected the building of God’s temple.

Consider Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church.  According to Easton’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Corinth “was noted for its wealth, and for the luxurious and immoral and vicious habits of the people.” Paul wrote the letter when he learned of the strife and sin practiced by members of the congregation. The purpose of the letter was to address the different factions within the church and to correct doctrinal errors.  The Corinthians had neglected personal sanctification and had, as a result, neglected to build the true temple of the Lord.1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NKJV)
“19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.”

Paul addressed the corporate Body of Christ in Ephesus as the temple of the Spirit of God.   

Ephesians 2:19-22 (NKJV)
“19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone,
21 in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”

Individually and corporately,  we are to be the sanctified temple of God, the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit.  Individually and corporately, we are to consider our ways.  If our emphasis is on material wealth, we are impoverished and malnourished. If we are not good stewards of our wealth, we are putting our funds into bags with holes.

In Acts 7:48-50, the first martyr, Stephan, quoted Isaiah 66:1-2,:
48 However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says: 49 'Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. What house will you build for Me? says the LORD, Or what is the place of My rest?
50 Has My hand not made all these things?'” (NKJV) 

It is time for us to lay aside the philosophies and practices of the world, to take up the cross of Jesus Christ and to build, both individually and corporately, the true temple of the Lord.